Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Blue poppy seeds are used mostly in European cooking. The mild, nutty taste makes them popular in breads, biscuits and cakes and the combine of lemon and poppy seed is a perennial favourite.

Serves 8

1 pale yellow rose, for crystallised petals

caster sugar, for crystallised petals

1 egg white

175g butter, at room temperature

175g caster sugar (extra, for cake batter)

2 large lemons, finely grated zest

and 2 tsp juice

3 medium eggs (extra)

250g self-raising flour

50g poppy seeds

4 heaped tbsp natural yoghurt

100g soft cream cheese

1 tbsp caster sugar (extra, for frosting)

1 tbsp natural yoghurt (extra, for frosting)

1 To make crystallised petals, carefully pull petals from rose. Fill a bowl with sugar. Brush each petal with egg white and then coat with sugar in bowl. Shake off excess sugar and put petals on a tray for a few hours or until brittle.

2 Preheat oven to 150C. Grease and line a 19cm x 12cm x 9cm deep loaf tin with baking paper. Put butter in a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until creamy. Add sugar (extra) and beat until almost white. Beat in lemon zest and eggs (extra), 1 at a time, along with 1 tsp of the flour with the second and last egg to prevent curdling. Sift in remaining flour and fold in poppy seeds and yoghurt. Spoon batter into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack.

3 To make frosting, beat cream cheese, sugar (extra), lemon juice and yoghurt (extra) in a bowl with a wooden spoon until fluffy. Spread thickly over cake and sprinkle with crystallised petals.